About 6 months ago, we did a marten "photo phriday". I apologize for this repeat. Wherever I've lived, I've been lucky enough to have them relatively close by in good enough numbers to harvest (central Idaho, southcentral Alaska, western interior Alaska, southeast Alaska, central Alaska, now back in east-central Idaho). I've spent a lifetime trying to understand marten populations...what makes them tick?


This one, from east-central Idaho, had an exceptional throat patch.



Another big male with a nice throat.



An extended throat patch, white socks, and a white-tipped tail made for an interesting-looking marten.



This is the same marten, dorsal view. It's from western interior Alaska.



Here's an interesting marten from central Alaska. Not a true albino, but pretty darned close.



This is a blastocyst flushed from the reproductive tract of a pregnant female. These could be counted to get an idea of population productivity for the upcoming trapping season.



Soboliphyme baturini, a stomach roundworm, is often present in marten populations, but doesn't seem to negatively affect the population.



A pretty portrait of an Alaskan marten.

Thanks Jack for posting. Im involved in live trapping marten from Mn and transferring to Wi to give a wider gene pool in Wi martens. We have some martens crossing fm MI and cohabiting with Wi martens. We have various programs with collars monitering marten populations. Im not a biologist , just a trapper helping out.

ND marten. I saw this one doing some beaver removal.

Nice pictures.They sure are fun to trap.Very easy to skin and no fleshing.

now this a nice Friday thread
I remember when they re-introduced the marten to the Turtle Mountains/ Peace Gardens area of Mb/ND
It did not take long for them to expand their range as they travelled the river ways.
As to not offend a certain artist my other subject will not be talked about, but there will be 23 pages of flea records published soon of my collections off them.

Great shots, Jack. Except the worms.

I've noticed the necklace bling can be bright on the ID marten. The one with ivory feet is gorgeous.

Ok N50...you're like the kid in school sitting behind the girl who likes to tease her sometimes by tugging on her ponytail. How in tarnation do you accumulate 23 pages of flea stuff ? Who does that ? I guess someone has to....

A couple different colour phases a darker one and a paler one.

Sorry, but pretty much the only marten pictures I have are of dead ones.

Waggler -

You didn't look too close on that first photo...

Jack

I am in awe , every time I see photos of such gorgeous marten in abundance. As well as all the other animals you bring in . T4Ever, you are a trapping machine . I love my collection of such varied colours of marten I own from you . And the beautiful otter I had Temple make into a nice hat too .

Count me in at being in awe. That is a heck of a furshed pic.

No question, T4E, that's real trapping!!!

Jack

I get them coming into camp if there are any beaver carcasses around. They have a tremendous sense of smell. Good thread Gulo. Thanks

In years gone by, I've spent many days snow-tracking marten in Alaska and in Idaho. Amazing what you can learn. One of the neatest things was the fact that they investigate pretty much every leaning tree (thus, I think leaning poles are a natural draw when trapping, even withhout bait). The holes into the subnivean world (underneath the snow) are at these leaning trees, and I think they depend on them for access to food. Also, they catch a lot of shrews beneath the snow, and those shrews are usually discarded (not eaten). I've noticed the same thing (non-use of shrews) by the boreal owls.

Jack

Sharon all flea records are put into a hard copy so the pages add up and at that time all my locations will be know by GPS locations. Some of T4Ever has some records in that paper as well. In the old days printing was too expensive at 100$ page, digital copies has dropped the price.
Interesting some stomach contents have had large amounts of Sorex cinereus, Masked shrew and several Micro sorex holi this happened after a mid winter rain and freeze where every trap was filled with marten.
Oh the days of 200+$ marten

Wish pa didn't change there mind about bringing marten back

Martens have the prettiest little faces

Well thank goodness for digital records. I still say , set off the bug bombs and problem solved . No more fleas, ticks, or scorpions to count or worry about

Look at this cute little fellow taking a nap.

That’s pretty interesting Gulo!

Why do you think the Shrew’s weren’t eaten? Too much food and they were cache-ing them for later? Or killing for fun, similar to a Wolf at times?

JP the short tailed shrew has an odour that you smell in the deciduous woods, it is a musty smell when there are a few shrews around ( more than 2 per Ha). Once you smell one you would recognize it.

Here is a black marten.


and an orange one.